World Series Posts Least-Watched Starter Ever

Rough news for Fox: the all-time low overnight ratings for Tuesday's game one of the World Series translated to the MLB championship's least-watched starter in modern TV metrics.

The first game between the Kansas City Royals and the San Francisco Giants, an embarrassing 7-1 loss for the Royals, only pulled 12.19 million viewers according to final adjusted Nielsen ratings. That falls below the previous low set in 2012 when just a shade more viewers (50,000) tuned into see the Giants beat the Detroit Tigers.

Nobody was projecting particularly strong returns for this World Series. Kansas City is a relatively small market — and though it's the Royals' first appearance in nearly 30 years, the Giants have become something of a World Series fixture with three appearances in the past five.

In the key demo, Fox ended up averaging a 3.4 rating among adults 18-49.

The series is far from over. And while a seven-game series could certainly see ratings spike, last night's near-shut-out doesn't bode well for Kansas City making that happen.

"I would rather have a seven-game series between any two teams than a four-game series between the Yankees and Dodgers," Fox Sports Media Group senior vp programming, research and content strategy Michael Mulvihillrecently told The Hollywood Reporter. "You’re always going to root for a game six, and then for a game seven."

The least-watched World Series game ever still stands as game three of the 2008 series. Only 9.8 million viewers watched the rain-delayed match-up between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Tampa Bay Rays.